Why is Jesus so important?

  It's natural to want warm and fulfilling relationships in life. Sadly, it would seem that many people aren't really related to anyone else in a meaningful way. For them, the fabric of the family and social lives have been torn by struggle and disappointment. Loneliness, emptiness and distrust are the result.

  To make things worse, people are confused about God. He surely has answers, but seems far away and remote from our day-to-day world. What help can he be if he doesn't involve himself with us? But God does want to be involved with us. In fact, God says that “those who diligently seek me will find me.” So, we are the ones who need to step in his direction to initiate a relationship with him, because he will never force himself on us.

  However, there is a problem in our seeking God. Beginning with Adam and Eve, every human being has done wrong and has not followed God, and this has caused us to be separated from him. So the most important relationship of all eludes us because of our wrong ways, and the way to a relationship with him seems blocked. And more than that, the Bible says that because of our wrong ways, the separation between us and God will become permanent when we die.

  What an awful situation! Yet, God has solved this apparent dilemma by reaching out to us because he loved us. How did he do that? Amazingly, God became a man so that we could see who he is and what he is like. That man - or really, that God-man - was Jesus. He lived on earth without doing anything wrong; he was perfect, and he loved people. Because he was a perfect man, he did have a relationship with God and didn't deserve to die separated from God.

  So how does that help us? The answer is in what Jesus did: he actually volunteered to die and be separated from God even though he didn't deserve that penalty. And he did that in place of us who really deserve that penalty . Yes, Jesus died for us; but even more amazingly, he became alive again to prove that he had defeated the death penalty, and that he really was God and deserves to be worshiped.

  In other words, God himself in the person of Jesus made it possible for us to have a relationship with him. All that God requires is that we agree with him that we do wrong things, believe that Jesus the God-man himself paid the penalty meant for our wrong-doings so that we could be made right with God, renounce our wrong ways, and follow him. If we do that, God gives us a new start and a new life, and makes us a part of his family. He also promises that our new relationship with him will last forever.

  So why is Jesus so important? Jesus is so important because he shows us who God is and that God loves us, and he is important because he is the link to having a relationship with God that is otherwise impossible to have because of our separation from him. Jesus is so important because he is the way to God.